Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa, 1966.
Main Street, Yorba Linda, 1961.
Model Market, Sunny Hills, Fullerton, 1961.
Wanda Rd., Villa Park, 1965.
Huntington Center, Huntington Beach, 1965.
Sunset Beach, 1966.
Larwin Square, Tustin, 1966.
Laguna Hills, 1966.
Sunset Beach, 1966.
There are some things I really just prefer about the southwest. Everything seems cleaner. No mold, mildew or algae on everything that doesn’t get scrubbed regularly. Pavement and masonry seem to last forever. Even the older stuff here, albeit some a bit sunburned, is clean. Plating is bright. Whitewalls are white. Paint is still mostly vivid, at least on the sides.
The first pic of Newport Blvd seems confusing to me. Cars seem to be going in all different directions in different lanes?
Yeah, the parallel service roads threw me for a minute. You’re going the wrong way!
I was under the impression it was an mirror image of an original photo.
Then tried to rationalize it was GB or Australia or S Africa.
Then realized the road to the left was a service road.
Needed a 2nd cup of coffee to figure it out!!
Growing-up in Orange County, CA I drove by a couple of these locations almost daily at the time these photos were taken. There were some still producing orange groves and orange fruit packing buildings near a couple of these locations. Thanks for sharing these photos, they bring back quite a few memories.
Regarding the comment on Newport Blvd., The main two lane road between Santa Ana and Newport Beach through Costa Mesa is to the right of the photo. This is a major route which turns into Highway 55 a mile or so to the north. The side road to the left provided access and parking to the commercial businesses in order to minimize disruption of traffic on the main road.
Now it makes sense to me! Thanks….
In Villa Park, Mom sent Junior to the market for groceries. Junior rigged up a semi to do his hauling. True small-town technology, already obsolete in cities by then.
I believe Yorba Linda was Richard Nixon’s hometown, not his birthplace, but I may have it reversed. My Los Alamitos/Rossmoor third grade toured the Hawaiian Punch factory in Fullerton in ’69. Get them hooked early! It was appropriate–the town of Los Alamitos began as a processing plant for local sugar beets.
Besides the smog, somethings that I didn’t see when I returned briefly in ’85 were the oil wells dotting urbanized SoCal.
Southern California in the ’60s is the height of coolness.
Nice Studebaker pickup behind the ’60 Impala hardtop coupe in Sunset Beach.
Saw that “Stude” as well.
And a ’56 Olds Holiday 98 along side it.
The vintage snapshot of Sun Set Beach California in 1966 is a found memory. I was born in Long Beach California and I remember the water tower there off Pacific Coast Highway. It was later converted to a home. I believe it’s still there but has probably changed hands several times. It’s been many years since I have cruised PCH
As I have said here before, I was born and raised in Southern California, Newport Beach. That first picture was a big surprise for me. The vertical word MESA was a movie theater at 19th & Newport Boulevard. We knew a lot of people in the Tustin, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa area. Yes, it was fun growing up there and being a teenager in the mid 60’s. My brother was 4 years older than me and had a ‘60 Mercury Monterey. We would cruise Whittier Boulevard (Whittier was named for the Quaker family by the name of Whittier, his name was John Greenleaf Whittier. It was also the birthplace of Richard Nixon and his family were Quakers), drive up to Sunset Boulevard or Hollywood Boulevard. The radio was usually tuned to KHJ with the top 40 songs pouring out-really loud. Great fun, great memories. Thanks for posting.
Typical in that Southern California is most always associated with Los Angeles. Well I did live there from 66-68 but then moved to San Diego which is almost always an after thought. However, San Diego didn’t have smog, didn’t have traffic, was easy to get to the beaches and you could park a block away, and was more laid back than Los Angeles. Lived there from 68-81 and even though born in New York City I still call San Diego my home.
The title of this is a bit misleading, as it is all Orange County. It has a bit of an identity crisis as being attached to Los Angeles with not much of a visible break, mostly continuous suburbs. San Diego County to the south is separated by the giant Marine Corps base and Riverside County to the east by the mountains.
I love looking at the old photos and reading the comments. Even though I am not from California, it is still really enjoyable getting to know it from all of the stories. Thanks, everyone.
Miss those days. Ventura county
Further down that line are a 64 Falcon convert and a red 58 Impala convert then what I believe to be either a Nash or Hudson circa 66 or 67
The cool, shiny, red “V dub” in “Tustin” makes me want to go “motoring”.
Bruno’s Villa Park Market! Went by there on school bus everyday to then new Villa Park High School.
Big fan of “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” movie, filmed in SoCal in ’63 (lots of now-classic cars!). In the scenes where the 2 ’58 Ply taxis are chasing Capt Culpeppers Dodge/Ply, they cross a bridge stucture where the cars go down a ramp; cross a drawbridge; go back up, then down again, cross ANOTHER drawbridge (I think) then pop back up to street level. I remember xing that very structure way back in ’69 as a kid, on a western trip from NJ with my parents. Anyone know where in Cal that is (was?), & what purpose that “bridge” served? Thanks.
Pontoon bridge,WWII vintage, to allow ships to pass but still carry needed traffic from Terminal Island (Naval Shipyard0 to Downtown Long Beach. It was finally replaced by a proper bridge in 1968, which has since been replaced by another.
These pictures were taken when I was young. I remember the places twenty years later. A lot changed in twenty years,let alone sixty.
Thx for your reply about the Pontoon bridge; had always wondered about it. Guess my memory wz off a bit (must’ve been early ’68, not ’69). Btw, that water tower structure looks MASSIVE, for what it is. Let me quess: earthquake proof, right? We got a rare “semi” big quake here in the N.E. a few weeks ago. Scary here, but would be “normal” for u guys out there!
Thank you, I love all these pictures .
I first arrived in So. Cal. during the Summer of 1969 and moved here in the Fall of 1970 so much of this is vividly remembered .
-Nate